In petroleum geology, a reservoir is a porous and permeable lithological unit or set of units that hold hydrocarbon reserves. Use of elastic or pressure waves in oil and gas reservoirs enhances recovery. Applied to a reservoir, wave excitation may increase the mobility of oil and gas trapped underground in porous material such as rock, for instance in the pores of oil reservoir rocks, or even in unconsolidated material. The objective is to remove barriers to flow into a well by improving the permeability of the porous material. A problem though is the dissipation of the wave energy as the wave traverses the reservoir. This is especially true for wave energy introduced to the reservoir from the surface. Another problem is the pressure waves have little effect on high viscosity oil deposits, such as heavy crude oil.
It is an objective of the present invention to address these shortcomings in the art.